Spanish hotel to showcase fingertip sharing/payment tech at WTM

The Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel is pioneering new biometric technology to allow guests to make payments with their fingertips.

The hotel’s Spanish parent company Palladium Hotel Group, which has just rebranded from Fiesta Hotel Group, will be at this year’s World Travel Market showcasing the technology.

Travolution was this year named WTM’s first Global Media Partner for technology for the 2012 event which will take place at the ExCeL exhibition centre in London on November 5-8.

In adopting the biometric technology Palladium Hotel Group has become the first hotel group worldwide to offer Paytouch.

This means holidaymakers at its Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel can make purchases with the touch of their fingertips giving guests and partygoers “a secure, cash-free holiday experience”.

In 2011 Palladium Hotel Group pioneered a live Facebook sharing experience at the Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel allowing guests to share their holiday experiences on Facebook in real time using RFID bracelets and totems distributed across the hotel.

In just over two months, Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel had in excess of 70,000 facebook ‘likes’, and more than 2,000 registered users of the new RFID wristbands, of which approximately 90% became facebook fans.

Today Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel has over 176,000 Facebook followers and more than 32,000 followers on Twitter.

WTM delegates will be able to log in to facebook using their fingertips at four Palladium Facebook Pods placed around ExCeL.

From the pods, users will be able to update their status and upload pictures taken directly from the camera totems.

Alfonso Giménez, associate director of marketing, said: “Palladium Hotel Group is proud to be leading the way in technology and looks forward to demonstrating the practical applications of Facebook for the hotel and travel industry.

“The biometric technology developed by Paytouch, twinned with the existing Facebook sharing options mark a significant advancement for technology and WTM is the ideal platform to launch this exciting initiative.

“Both the facebook totems and the fingerprint payment system offer the hotel’s visitors and party goers a great experience and I am pleased that World Travel Market delegates will be able to sample and enjoy this experience at WTM 2012.”